President of the United States, senator, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and… soul singer. Barack Obama has quite the resume. During his time as the sitting President, Obama appeared at the Ray Charles Tribute in Performance at the White House. The then-President trolled the audience by announcing that he definitely wouldn’t be singing. Usher then hit the stage and sang Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say,” but before the song was done, the President would renege on his promise to the audience.
The band at the White House sure knows how to swing, and their groove together with Usher’s hype energy soon had the entire room singing and clapping along. Usher quickly had all the other performers from the evening onstage with him and led the crowd in several call and response sections. At 5:35 in the video, one of the singers pointed the mic at Obama and had him sing the responses. Later, Obama even went onstage and led the entire room by singing the call parts while the audience responded.
PBS NewsHour uploaded the performance on YouTube, where it was quite the hit, attracting 13.8 million views. The video shows a fairly brief segment of Obama singing, although it’s clear that he can definitely hold a tune. He also has quite a pleasant tone to his voice, which is no surprise for a man celebrated for his impressive oratory skills.
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Obama sang at the Ray Charles Tribute in 2016, although he’d already shared his vocal skills at The White House before. During his time as President, Obama sang at the In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues event. This time around, he sang a more substantial section, and you really get a good idea of how his singing voice sounds. The President certainly didn’t disappoint when he took the lead vocal on “Sweet Home Chicago” shortly after 0:30 and then sang with B.B. King.
Obama discussed the importance of blues music to the musical tradition of the United States at both the Ray Charles Tribute and the Red, White, and Blues events. At the latter event, Obama said the blues is a type of oral history that records the struggles of African-Americans.
“The blues reminds us that we’ve been through tougher times before,” Obama said. “That’s why I’m proud to have these artists here not just as a fan but also as the president because their music teaches us that when we find ourselves at a crossroads, we don’t shy away from our problems. We own them. We face up to them. We deal with them. We sing about them. We turn them into art. And even as we face the challenges of today we imagine a brighter tomorrow.”
If you would like to hear more from this talented artist, you can follow Usher on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/usher) and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/usher).